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Maggie Three-Roads
Personality In some ways, Maggie is a brash and impatient teenager--and yet she has a good heart, and that shines through too. She genuinely cares about other people, doesn't like to see needless suffering, and is right there to listen when someone is upset. She's still young enough to struggle with issues of authority, a difficulty when it comes to dealing with Garou society, but is smart enough, usually, to know what she can get away with and what she can't. Deeper still inside, there is that spirituality. When she was able to connect with it, she found a thirst inside of herself slowly filling. She gets true satisfaction from her role as a theurge, and takes pride in it. She is eager to learn and eager to work hard. She's got a deep streak of loyalty, too. She's capable of intense focus when it's time to get down to business. She has an intense sense of right and wrong, good and evil, and her whole identity is wrapped up in seeing herself as "one of the good guys." There are temptations that will not sway her. Public History You know that old SNL skit about living in a van down by the river? Yeah. That was me, except we didn't live on the river every day. We parked wherever we felt like it. See, my Mom was a genuine van dweller. Don't know what that is? I mean she took an old van, and she ripped the seats out the back, and she turned it into a little house. We had a bed and a stove and a television, a computer for her freelance journalism work and some very clever built in shelving for our crap. Speaking of crap, you don't really want to know how we dealt with that. '' No, seriously, dude, the bucket thing didn't happen that often. Really. Usually we just went to public restrooms. There's public showers, too. It's all in how you work it. As for education, I guess you'd call me...homeschooled? I saw the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls and Yellow Stone Park all before I was six years old. I learned when you have to slip away from the cops too, because they think you're illegally parked, or, more likely, because your Mom is good at being loud with other people and they don't like what she has to say. See, my Mom is a journalist, but she's a journalist for a cause. It would be more appropriate to call her an activist. She writes for publications like Mother Jones or Democracy Now or Infowars, or any other small independent publication that takes no money from "the Man." She usually writes after standing on a street corner yelling, "We're very upset!" about various stuff. I admire my Mom though. She's doing her part. She's got more causes than I can even name, from environmentalism to anti-war causes to anti-globalization and anti-exploitation to anti-being-mean. Really, if I were to describe my Mom's whole philosophy, it would be "Mean People Suck," and we shouldn't put up with them sucking. But knowing what I know now? Yeah. She's fighting her own good fight. My Mom, as it happens, knew I was a werewolf forever. My Dad was a Silent Strider (she says) called Rourke Runs-Long. A Philodox, she said. He gave me the Baptism by Fire when I was still all pink and shrivelly. I was born naturally with his help, out on the playa in Nevada. I have no birth certificate, no identification, none of that stuff that would make me good for modern life, but I also never had to go through crap at public school when I started turning all weird. He disappeared--that's just what we do. I wonder if I'll ever see him. Maybe he's dead. I don't know. But Mom is Kin sure as shooting, and so she knew what to do. She knew how to put up with it when my adolescent temper got ramped up to the nth degree. She knew what the nightmares meant, too. She had this map, marked up with all these places. One of them was in Aspen, and the Sept of Fire and Ice. I did all my cub training there. My Mom gave them something from my father for chiminage, and I have no idea what it was. I never asked. I had stuff to learn, you know, and a lot of adjustments to make. From freedom and autonomy and the open road to sit down, shut up, and do as you're told. Not an easy adjustment. But then again, this whole new world had opened up to me, too. First Change I didn't actually go through my first change till my Mom dropped me off, and I was guided through it by the sept elders. That means Ididn't rip anybody apart in my sleep or anything fun like that. I'm pretty grateful for that, too. I was around 17 when it happened. I think. Mom's not real clear on the exact date of my birthday. Cubhood My cubhood lasted for about 2 years. I was taught how to perform a proper beatdown, both with a weapon and without. I had a thing for long knives. I got pretty good at those. I learned that anything a Ragabash says is NOT to be listened to and, "But Wild-Rags Said!" was not considered ANYTHING like a valid excuse for hanging up underwear belonging to every Philodox who did not go commando all over the sept. Ok, you know what, it was really funny. But the consequences weren't. But dude, I had to blow off some steam somehow, you know? It was really hard work. I still remember stepping to the other side for the first time. I just--loved it there. I felt so alive, so at home there. Maybe that's why I have this little problem. If I get startled, or stressed out, I sometimes find myself...heading that way. If there's anything reflective. I fell half through my own distorted reflection in a pond once, and wound up on the other side. And had to be dragged out by the scruff of my neck, too. I hope I get over that someday. It's not exactly an advantage. I loved learning the Rites, and how to make talens, and how to talk to the spirits. I was hungry for those times I got to learn stuff like a starving person hungry for food, and felt restless and irritated when I wasn't learning anything. Rite of Passage One day, the caern got word that a group of humans was meeting in a nearby community center to discuss whether or not they'd introduce biosolids to the local farmers in the area. Now, if you don't know what biosolids are, let me tell you, it's pretty freaking gross. Big cities like New York take all of their human sewage, with all of the heavy metals and all of the awful stuff that contaminates them, and they sort of...dry it out. They claim that drying it out makes it all safe, and totally responsible to recycle into fertilizer. It's a lie. Mom protested this several times. They sell the farmers on the idea that they're helping the environment, and then these contaminants get into the soil, the food, the ground water. It's a very clever scheme of the Wyrm if I've ever heard one, and here these people were considering it. So the elders come to me, and I get this reminder speech about "as above, so below." They told me I had to go find this place in the Penumbra and go do a Rite of Cleansing there, so the Wyrm couldn't influence their deliberations, they'd look at the facts, and make the right decision. I thought that sounded like a piece of cake, really, but what did I know? They had me enter the Penumbra from just outside the Bawn, meaning I had a nice long walk into town. Between me and my destination there was this pissy Bull spirit. Now--I didn't know it was just a Gaffling. I still had this idea that if a spirit was a Gaffling, it would be kind of...you know. Tiny. Cute. I didn't know I probably could have just thrown down with this thing. It scared the crap out of me and started chasing me, cause it was in this rage state. I ran back and it chuffed and went back to the spot I needed to be. I tried to go around it. Nothing do it. It always seemed to be in my way, but if I backed off it would go back to doing what it was doing. Being Ferdinand, I guess. Chewing cud. I tried the Smell of Man on it. That just made it angrier. It did not care that I was a big bad Man rauuugh! I had to run away again. Finally, I edged as close as I dared and summoned up a pair of lunes. I had them light up moon bridges deeper into the umbra, then hid. They shone really brightly so the bull had to come investigate, then, at my request and through the little bargain of gnosis for service that I'd given them, sped down the bridges like I was following one of them, taunting the bull that he'd failed. The bull took off down one of those roads--I still don't know where it ended up, really--and I ran past where he'd been to get to that community center and perform my Rite of Cleansing. And that's why they call me Maggie Three-Roads. Two for the decoy roads, and one for the real road that I took to my destination. Present Day I'd heard all the talks about "sending folks" to revitalize Crystal Springs. And that's fine, but I'm an adult now, and there aren't any other Silent Striders there, and I hadn't found a pack yet. So one day, I just did what Silent Striders do. I packed up a back pack full of my stuff, such as it is, and I took off down the road to a place where I figured I might be juuuust a little bit more needed than where I was. The open road feels...good...and I'll get there when I get there. Friends and Acquaintances Player Characters None yet. Non-Player Characters Shelly Cooper -- That's my Mom. Lonnie Cooper -- That's my Uncle. He's written me a couple of times; my Mom contacted him and so I know he's out there and I can call on him if I need him. He lives around the Colorado area, managing an RV park. Howls-Long--This is the Child of Gaia Theurge who took care of most of my training at Fire and Ice. He's a pretty cool guy, though sometimes it's a bit hard to "get" him cause he started life as a wolf. He seemed content to let me go when I left, too, and I'm not going to bug him anymore. Sheet Freebies spent (35 total): 2 points on 1 point of Insight 2 points on 1 point of Integrity 2 points on 1 point of Resistance 2 points on 1 point of Subterfuge 4 points on 2 points of Vigilance 2 points on 1 point of Melee 2 points on 1 point of Enigmas 2 points on 1 point of Occult 2 points on 1 point of Rituals 2 points on 2 points of Rites 1 point on 1 point of Totem 8 points on 4 points of Gnosis 2 points on 2 points of Willpower 2 points on 2 points of Rage Total: 35 : : Expertises Melee: Knives Specialties Backgrounds '''Kinfolk:' Maggie's mother is an in-the-know Kinfolk. She also has an Uncle who she's never met, but whom has written her a few times to let her know he's out there. Rites: Maggie is fascinated by Rites, and seeks to learn even more than the ones she already has. Totem Merits Code of Honor: Maggie wouldn't call it a code of honor, but she does care about right and wrong, and she'd be horrified to find herself doing anything truly bad. She tries to uphold the Litany as well as holding to a basic sense of "do unto others," type of a mentality. The Children of Gaia she studied under only enhanced this mentality. Obviously this does not apply to enemies. (3 extra dice to resist supernatural persuasion or opponent's difficulties raised by 2). Concentration: Being able to just shut out all the b.s. and FOCUS is integral to Maggie's personality. Her training as a theurge has honed this natural ability and made it a true aid. (Any negative modifier to dice pool or any difficulty that arises from a distraction or inauspicious circumstance is limited to 2). Flaws No Partial Transformation: For whatever reason, Maggie just never got the hang of just changing a part of herself. She's a rather "all or nothing" personality, and this might be contributing to the problem. Slip Sideways: Maggie felt at home and safe on the other side, which given its dangers is perhaps a function mostly of where she's been in the Umbra. But that's caused her to instinctively leap across the Gauntlet, when given the opportunity, should the stress become too much. (Must make a Wits + Occult roll, difficulty 7, when confronted with a highly reflective surface during a stressful situation. Must still make a successful Gnosis roll to slip sideways but difficulty is one less). Advancement ; Current +learn : ; Current +teach : ; Current +learn : ; Advancement History Category:Past PCs